i’m cheating on my girlfriend

it’s true. there’s a love in my life that is now moving in on her territory. i’m cheating on my girl with: pastrami. yes dear readers, it’s pastrami. that delicious variant of corned beef (which oddly enough after a lifetime of hating i am starting to enjoy). i’ve had a love affair with pastrami for some time now but only now is it really creating a stronger food-hold on my heart. oh i could profess my love for pastrami endlessly but i will share a brief foray into the factory store of a popular meat business instead.

shitty tippers beware

thank you bitterwaitress for finally doing what many of us in the food industry all these years have longed to do: create a central repository to track all sorts of shitty customers.

here’s the deal: the person’s name is listed on the site along with the number of people in their party, the date they were in, the name of the restaurant in question, city and state of said restaurant, and the best two: the amount of the check and the tip left for the server. you seriously better watch your back. if more servers and bartenders know this is out there they will hurt you bad. if you click on the name and the server has included it you will get a full rundown of the offending scenario.

people, it’s not hard. pony up for good service or don’t go out. plain and simple. consider yourself warned.

chicken feet…. for brunch?

on the north side of the city it’s popular to go out for expensive brunch on sundays. many times you’ll pay $11 for pancakes. granted the pancakes may be made using high quality chocolate, fresh whipped cream, strawberries. however if you venture further south to chinatown, you’ll find very different brunch eats: dim sum.

dim sum: cantonese translation puts it as “a touch of heart” and that’s what it does, it touches the heart with strange and familiar flavors. the four of us made our way to the immensely popular phoenix restaurant in the chinatown district. oddly enough this is the oldest restaurant in the same location in chinatown and it was packed. dim sum is to chinatown as brunch is to north side yuppies. equally as delicious, slightly more adventurous and a nice link between the old and new worlds.

there is no menu. there is a card on the table completely in chinese and ladies pushing carts around the dining room.  when they come by with something you want, they give it to you and mark something on your card. our resident fixer, mak, orders jasmine tea for us as she schools us on the proper protocols for excellent dim sum. to give you an idea of how traditional dim sum is: a book purchased in hong kong with pictures and english translations (for a gui san) of the dishes names and ingredients were dead on the money for everything we ate. let the games begin….

countdown to napa

yes friends, it’s only a matter of 48 hours and the woman and i will be in napa, california.  shortly we will be living the good life: good wine, good food and good cheese.  this also means that this saturday night at 9pm pst will mark the momentous occasion of a dinner.  not just any dinner, but dinner at the french laundry.  it shall be unforgettable and worth all the hundreds upon hundreds of dollars that i will be spending.  pics to follow.

food trucks, not just roach coaches

i went out on a limb and tried something different today.  i decided to eat off a food truck.  now here’s the thing, in chicago food trucks are usually reserved for crap food for construction workers and those laborers that enjoy roach infested foodservice establishments.  here in philly it’s a whole different story.  the are plentiful and serve everything from hots and burgers to fresh fruit salads and even chinese food.  yes that’s right, chinese food.